Unix and Overlooked Pop Culture

Episode 15: More on the Vienna Circle

01-10-2013

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate." Noam Chomsky

In Episode 12, Mitchell explained what had happened to him while he was writing for The Muleskinner. One of the groups that was impacted by the mishap of the title and picture caption in a story was The Vienna Circle, a group that aims to promote more critical thinking and intellectualism to UCM. Since Stephen had to step away from the podcast due to work and life obligations, we needed to find another co-host.

Enter Zack Dodson, member of the very group that is registering as an official student organization at UCM. In this episode, he describes the beginnings of the group and how meetings are conducted. The concern in today's academic environment is the decline in the quality of academic works as well as critical thinking. When thinking is limited, populations are more easily controlled. After all, when universities are being treated as glorified trade schools, careers are prioritized above thinking. Mitchell's take is available in PDF.